Backing Up Your Email

It's really too bad that Microsoft didn't include a simple one-click backup option in Outlook Express. After attempting it myself, I began to think that they purposely made it hard to make a backup of your emails and address book. Here's a step by step guide to burning a backup CD with your Outlook Express goodies...

Start by putting a blank CD in the computer. You should see a little popup window asking what you want to do next. Select "Open Writable CD Folder" and press OK. If your computer doesn't prompt for an action when you insert the CD, just go to My Computer and open the CD Drive folder.

To backup your Outlook Express email messages, follow this procedure:

1. Open Outlook Express. On the Tools menu, click Options.
   
2. On the Maintenance tab, click Store Folder.
   
3. Select the folder location (hold down left mouse button and drag across the folder name from left to right) then press CTRL+C to copy the location.

   
   
   
   
   

   Note: Part of the folder name may be hidden, so be sure to copy the entire string. In a typical Outlook Express installation, the folder name will be something like this, but the characters in the brackets will be different for each computer:

   C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Local Settings\Application Data\Identities\{3D3B1757-A978FC42}\Microsoft\Outlook Express

   
   

4. Click Cancel twice to close the dialog box.
   
5. Close Outlook Express.
   
6. Click Start, and then click Run.
   
7. In the Open box, press CTRL+V to paste in the folder name, then click OK.
   
8. When the folder opens in a new window, click Edit, then Select All.
   
9. Drag the selected email folders to the CD Drive folder.
   

To backup your Microsoft Outlook Express address book, follow this procedure:

1. Click File, Export, then Address Book.
2. Click Text File (Comma Separated Values), then Export.
3. In the File Name box, type C:\addrbook.csv, then click Next and Finish.
4. Locate the C:\addrbook.csv file using My Computer, then drag it to the CD Drive folder.

If you want to go beyond backing up your messages and address book, you can also back up your email account information. This includes your email username, password, mail servers, and other settings that you specified when creating the account in Outlook Express. To backup your account data, follow this procedure:

1. Click Tools, then Accounts
   
2. Click the Mail tab, then select the account you want to export
   
3. Click Export
   
4. In the Save In box, type C:\ACCTNAME.iaf, then click Next and Finish. (The "ACCTNAME" will be the actual account name, already filled in for you -- no need to change it.)
   
5. Locate the C:\ACCTNAME.iaf file using My Computer, then drag it to the CD Drive folder.

   Note: If you have multiple Identities in Outlook Express, you must repeat the message, address book and account backup process for each identity, storing them separately, so you can identify them later in case they need to be restored from backup.

   Now go to the CD Drive folder, click on "Write these files to CD" and the CD Writing Wizard will help you complete the process of burning the CD in just a few clicks.

   Got any email backup tips? Post your comments below.